THE SPORT OF ROWING third or fourth workout we would do, we would say ‘okay, let’s just blow out one minute,’ but only gradually build for that one minute as long as it was efficiently moving the boat. Every fifteen seconds we would increase the boat speed, and by the time we got to the racing season, we would have 44 strokes per minute by the end of that minute.”6689 With 250 to go, Müller was at 38 and three-quarters of a length ahead. Seven strokes later it was open water! He got an additional half length in the The author and Xeno in 2009 first 1,200 meters while noticing that the others were leaving me behind. It was hard to really trust that yes, it was possible to start building in the last 700 meters, and to potentially be a bowball ahead at 250 meters to go. The goal in that last 800 meters or 700 meters was to start adding torque, so I was going with a little less torque, and I was ready to add more.”6688 Down two lengths in fourth place at the smoothly and almost 1,000, Müller imperceptibly upped his rating from 35 to 36 and immediately began to move. He crossed the 1,500 in third but only a half-length down on Porter in the lead. Müller then raised his rate one more beat to 37. In five strokes he was in second. In ten more he was in first. Xeno: “I knew that Porter wasn’t going to take it up in the last 250 meters because in the semi-final, if he could have done it, he would have won against me . . . because it was Porter! He has an ego. He would have brought the fight to me if he could, but he didn’t. “And you know, I trained to always row the last 250 meters by instinct because every 6688 Müller, op. cit. drive to the line as Porter and Lange fought desperately for Silver, the former ultimately gaining it by inches. Porter especially looked devastated on the awards podium. Many have described Müller as an explosive sprinter, but that is not exactly accurate. Xeno Müller’s last 500 in 1996 was indeed faster than the previous three, but he had gradually and smoothly wound it up from the 1,000 on in and looked amazingly calm and fluid as he knifed through the field, much like the 1982 New Zealand Eight, which had followed the identical race plan. On the 1996 FISA Video, Daniel Topolski described Müller as “a very strong, powerful, contained sculler. Very, very horizontal on the drive back, good connection through the back through to the legs.”6690 Certainly it was his fingers-to-toes connection that carried him through. Müller was only one of many outstand- ing scullers Harry Mahon coached during the 1990s. The Times of London: “Though [Harry Mahon] found professional success in Switzerland, the blunt speaking New Zealander was never quite at home in the 6689 Ibid. 6690 1996 FISA Video Commentary 1848
